EXTENSION. Mayors of Antique's 18 municipalities meet with Governor Rhodora Cadiao and the provincial Inter-Agency Task Force at the Binirayan Gymnasium on Monday (June 29, 2020). Libertad Mayor Mary Jean Te confirmed that the Department of Education has again extended the use of schools as isolation facilities. (PNA photo by Annabel Consuelo J. Petinglay)
SAN JOSE DE BUENAVISTA, Antique – The Department of Education (DepEd), for the third time, has extended the use of schools as isolation facilities to give additional time for local chief executives (LCEs) to prepare their municipal isolation facilities.
Libertad Mayor Mary Jean Te, in a meeting with Governor Rhodora J. Cadiao and the Inter-Agency Task Force for Coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), said on Monday DepEd Antique Division Superintendent, Dr. Felisa Beriong confirmed that the use of schools as isolation facilities has been extended anew until July 15.
“Supposedly we are to end our use of schools as isolation facilities on June 30, but Superintendent Beriong has informed me of the new DepEd decision,” Te, who is also president of the Antique Chapter of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP), said during their meeting.
DepEd initially allowed local government units (LGUs) to use schools as isolation facilities from April 1 to June 1. Upon the request of the LMP, it was extended until June 30.
Meanwhile, Belison Mayor Christopher Piccio said there are 200 locally stranded individuals (LSIs) undergoing quarantine in a DepEd school in his municipality.
“Tomorrow, I will issue an Executive Order authorizing the Municipal Health Office (MHO) to continue using the DepEd school as isolation facility,” he said.
He said that since there will be no face-to-face classes when classes open on August 24, then he intends to request DepEd to allow them to continue using Belison Central School as isolation facility until such time that there will already be a vaccine on Covid-19.
Antique Governor Cadiao, on the other hand, said the provincial government welcomes the advisory of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) OIC-Regional Director Juan Jovan E. Ingeniero that there will be a temporary suspension of trips of all LSIs bound for Region 6 (Western Visayas) effective June 28.
“It is a good thing because we will have a respite for two weeks,” Cadiao said during their meeting.
She said the mayors, however, should be ready when the temporary suspension will be lifted to attend to their LSIs.
The operation of the Philippine Airlines which was supposed to start its commercial flight on June 28 from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) to Antique Airport will also be temporarily stopped.
PAL transported 82 passengers, considered to be LSIs from Metro Manila last June 28, and another 87 LSIs from Antique back to Metro Manila on its return flight on the same day. (PNA)
